More New South Wales people are gaining tertiary degrees and more highly skilled jobs, while younger people up to 34 years of age are moving to other States, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Education in NSW

Outcomes from student literacy and numeracy tests in Year 5 have remained steady since 2000. However, Indigenous students had poorer outcomes with results some 13-15% below that of all students in 2005. The proportion of people aged 25-64 years with a bachelor degree qualification or above increased from 19.8% in 2000 to 25% in 2006.

NSW population and economic growth

New South Wales population growth rate fell from 2002 to 2004. The rate rose again in 2005 and 2006, although to a lower level than previously, mainly from a lower net overseas migration into NSW, and higher net interstate migration out of NSW largely by younger people up to 34 years of age.

The finance & insurance and property & business services industries have contributed the most to NSW economic growth since 2000 (31% of income growth). The manufacturing industry, while of a significant size, underperformed in average income growth and has seen a decline of 29,200 jobs since 2000.

Between 2000 and 2006 the number of jobs in NSW grew by 262,000 reaching 3.29 million, and more than 92% of the job growth was for more highly skilled occupations.

Health, death of young people, road accidents

Life expectancy and death rates show NSW health continued to improve between 2000 and 2005. The life expectancy at birth of men improved by 2.1 years to reach 78.5 years, and the death rate for all people fell from 6.9 to 5.9 per 1000 people.

In 2005, nearly half of all deaths of young men and a third of young women aged 15-34 years in NSW were due to suicide, transport accidents or accidental drug overdoses (418 people). As many young people died from suicide (173 persons) as from transport accidents (167 people), and four times as many young men (330) died from these causes as young women (88).

The rate of road transport related deaths, injuries and accidents per 100,000 people in NSW has been declining since the 1970s, though speed as a contributing cause to an accident increased from 13.4% to 17.3% between 1990 and 2005.

More details are in Statistical Trends in NSW, 2007 (cat. no. 1338.1.55.001).